Author: Roger Ebert

Man, you couldn’t get me down into that hole in the ground for all the beans in Boston. It’s perfectly circular, in the middle of a gloomy, grassy field, and Matt and Steve talk Andrew into bringing his new video camera and filming as they disappear into its dark maw. They use the camera’s light…

I know a novel that begins: “This is the saddest story I’ve ever heard.” Now, here is one of the saddest movies I have ever seen. It is sad because a woman has chosen to lead her life in a way that is fearful and unnatural to her, and she must live every moment in…

Psychoanalysis has been so influential, at least in part, because two of its creators, Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, were so devilishly gifted at creating memes. Many of their technical terms are brilliant at arguing for their own validity. Consider inferiority complex. Set aside what is actually meant by that. Everyone, upon hearing it, instinctively…

The Tuskegee Airmen were a group of African-American fighter pilots who were trained despite the racism entrenched in the U.S. armed services at the time, were deployed in action, and achieved fame and many decorations for their skills against German pilots. which included engaging and shooting down Messerschmitt Me 262s, the first jet fighters. So…

Is it possible to forget that “The Artist” is a silent film in black and white and simply focus on it as a movie? That’s what people seem to zero in on. They cannot imagine themselves seeing such a thing. Yet, here is one of the most entertaining films in many a moon, a film…

No movie has ever been able to provide a catharsis for the Holocaust, and I suspect none will ever be able to provide one for 9/11. Such subjects overwhelm art. The artist’s usual tactic is to center on individuals whose lives are a rebuke to the tragedy. They sidestep the actual event and focus on…

BUY TICKETS. Roman Polanski’s “Carnage” involves time spent by two married couples in a luxurious Manhattan condo as afternoon fades into evening. The film is very well named. We have seen this dramatic trajectory before, where smooth politeness relentlessly erodes into foul-mouthed imprecations, but the point isn’t the plot anyway, iIt’s the performances that are…

“The Descendants” has a happy ending. Therefore technically it’s a comedy. It takes place in the paradise of Hawaii. It stars George Clooney. That may lead you to expect a pleasant good time, but this film is so much more than that. This is one of Clooney’s best performances, in the new film by Alexander…

“Hugo” is unlike any other film Martin Scorsese has ever made, and yet possibly the closest to his heart: a big-budget 3-D family epic, and in some ways a mirror of his own life. We feel a great artist has been given command of the tools and resources he needs to make a movie about…